go the way of all flesh

English

Etymology

Equivalent to Danish gå al kødets gang, German den Weg allen Fleisches gehen.

Verb

go the way of all flesh

1. (euphemistic) To die; to follow a course leading to death or extinction.
   • 1624, John Donne, "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions," Meditation XVII:

     ...That though the body be going the way of all flesh, yet that soul is going the way of all saints.

   • 1888, Thomas Hardy, "The Three Strangers," in Wessex Tales,

     The first stranger handed his neighbor the family mug—a huge vessel of brown ware, having its upper edge worn away like a threshold by the rub of whole generations of thirsty lips that had gone the way of all flesh.

   • 1967, "Tops & Bottoms," Time, 18 Aug.,

     On the U.S. West Coast, the clubs and restaurants that feature topless female entertainers and waitresses also seemed to be going the way of all flesh. In Los Angeles, 20% of the joints have closed.

   • 2006, Laura Wertheimer, "Clerical Dissent, Popular Piety, and Sanctity in 14th-Century Peterborough," Journal of British Studies, vol. 45, no. 1, p. 3,

     Laurence of Oxford went the way of all flesh on the gallows.

Synonyms

• pass away
• pay the debt of nature